Converse, Bill

Cult icon Bill Converse trots back to Dark Entries with Trust. Converse has honed his craft since the early days of the Midwest rave scene, absorbing lessons from luminaries like Claude Young and Traxx. His skill as a producer has been cemented with releases on labels like Dark Entries, Fit Sound, and Obsolete Futures, and his prowess as a DJ has been witnessed on floors worldwide. In recent years, Converse has also pushed audiences to their lysergic limits with his sinewy and kinetic live sets, which pair classic analog boxes like the Roland TB-303 with cutting-edge modular synthesis techniques. The 7 tracks on Trust pick up the wild energy of these live hardware explorations, channeling the splayed beats of Chicago’s Relief Records, the acidic grit of Midwest techno like Woody McBride’s Communique Records, and the hypnagogic hooks of Artificial Intelligence-era IDM. According to Converse, the abrupt changes and off-kilter rhythms are “an effort to facilitate or express trust-making in the listening experience. I want some degree of give and take with the listener.” This process makes Converse’s sound truly singular, the kind of aural landscape that can only be conjured through a lifetime of crate-digging and analog abuse - just check out the untenable funk of “Live Track” or the otherworldly groove of “Romance.” Trust comes in a sleeve featuring artwork from Sonya Rapaport from 1986 featuring images generated with an MS-DOS computer. Converse says “I think there's also a muscle-to-love vibe with this one.” We can trust him.